To that end, Vertica rolled its database together with VMware's hypervisor and the Linux-based CentOS so that users drop an image onto VMware-supported hardware and from there are ready to populate the system with their data.

While the benefits of virtualization are largely associated with hardware consolidation, Menninger explains that "we benefit applications that cross the boundary from one node to multiple nodes." He continues that nodes can be added either as the data warehouse expands or to boost performance.

Philip Howard, research director of data management at Bloor Research, explains that "there won’t be many of the traditional advantages of virtualization because most data warehouses are working flat-out anyway. Perhaps the most obvious time when it would be useful is if you need to build a short-term data mart to query the hell out of for a few months."

That is one scenario in which Vertica's Menninger says it envisions customers using the appliance. Another is among companies with large amounts of data that add to that regularly, such as financial services firms, telcos, and marketing services organizations.

Though major database vendors, notably IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle, have yet to officially optimize their data warehouse for virtualization, they are active in the virtualization realm and are likely to branch into this direction in due course, Bloor Research's Howard says.